Dubai - getting there...

[stephanie teeter <stephanieteeter@yahoo.com>]

I'm sitting here in the barn at the Endurance Village
- the US/Canadian horses share a quarantine barn. Have
the laptop set on a bale of shavings, I'm sitting
on a bucket - the story begins. John is out in the
desert riding Khruschev - went with Darolyn. Searching
for camels and gazelles. Here goes -

The departure from LA was very smooth. We loaded the
horses in the cargo box around 10 pm. Hoisted the box
onto a big flatbed and drove them to the departure
terminal. Karen DiCamillo was there with SR Sharee,
and Christy Janzen's horse Tais was also travelling
with us, with Kim - Christy's groom - scheduled to
meet us in Dubai. 

The cargo plane (CargoLux jumbo jet) was huge. We
loaded the box with the three horses off the truck,
and then hoisted them up into the belly of the plane -

packed in there along with all of the other cargo.
Mersant International was the shipping agent and they
had a professional groom with us the entire trip.
Great
guy - big burly Irishman named Des. Has been shipping
horses for 30 years and he made us feel relaxed and
comfortable from the start. He actually rode in the
box with the horses during the truck transit to the
terminal, and while the box was loaded onto the plane.
He also stayed with them during take-off and landing.
He was loads of fun, and had stories about the old
days - 100+ horses tied side by side in the cargo hold
- packed in like cattle - stallions challenging each
other... sounded like some pretty wild times.

It was really cool being able to walk around the
ground under the jet - making sure our gear was
loaded, so close to the rumble of the engines. It was
dark out and made it seem even more exciting. Karen
and I rode in the 'passenger' section -  a few seats
right behind the cockpit where the crew rode. We could
watch the pilots and Karen even sat in the cockpit
during the landing in Luxembourg. She came out with
her eyes very wide. We had plenty of room to move
around, comfortable seats (first class recliners) and
we could climb down into the cargo hold and check on
the horses whenever we wanted. Their box had canvas
flaps that we opened for ventilation, and small doors
up front on either side so we could walk in and offer
them water, carrots, etc. 

We landed in Luxembourg and unloaded the box from the
CargoLux plane. Had a 2 hour layover but the horses
stayed in the box. We had been flying east from LA,
so had a brief period of daylight, then it was dark
again in Luxembourg. We loaded the horse box onto a
different plane - British Express - another big jumbo
jet.  Climbed up into the cockpit area and headed for
Dubai.

We arrived in Dubai at 7 AM - 20 hours after we left
California. The coast was in fog - and our first
glimpse of the city was from the window of the plane
as we descended for landing. The tops of the high-rise
resort hotels were piercing through the fog. Karen
looked out the plane window and said 'look! There's
Atlantis!' - it was pretty amazing looking. 

When we arrived at the terminal it was a wee bit
confusing for a while. We had gotten pretty accustomed
to just trusting that wherever we were, somebody else
would know what was happening and what to expect-
because we never did! We unloaded the horse and the
tack/baggage and were sort of standing around when an
official came up, scratching his head, flipping
through pages in his clipboard ... some fellow
with an Indian accent "you have horses? I don't have
any horses scheduled to arrive..."

Oh great....  Des made sure the horses were unloaded
and we took them to an area where we could walk them
until somebody figured out what was going on. Somebody
grabbed our baggage and started hauling it to the
arrival area - until Des stopped him. The baggage was
supposed to stay with us. But somehow some of the
baggage ended up going anyway. Then a guy showed up
along with a big horse van, looking  very much in
charge - he pulled out a card and flashed it to the
guys who had thought they were in charge. As soon as
they saw the card, everything started happening. The
horses were loaded into the van for the ride to the
Endurance Village, our baggage was retrieved (mostly),
apologies were made, and we were rolling again. The
van went ahead, and we went in the car with David (the
guy with the card) to meet the van at the Village. A
few more hitches - the fellow with our visas and
permits had left them in the office in Dubai and gone
home for the holiday, the horse van got lost for a
while, I had to go back to the airport (75 km) for the
misplaced baggage  - but  finally we made it. Settled
the horses into the US/Canada barn (just completed the

night before) - and then settled ourselves into our
room at the village (a cross between a dormitory and a
barracks) - decent facility, good food, but not very
fancy. Once the next wave of crew arrived, we'd have
rooms at the nice hotels in Dubai - pool,  excersize
room,  the works. 

John and Krusty just got back - lots of camels, lots
of pictures. (we'll post  them soon) - 

more later-

Steph




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